Do you get a thrill out of creating something innovative with a great bunch of people in a fast-paced environment? Do you enjoy delicious free food and want to have a chance at winning big prize money–$2,000 anyone? Then our upcoming Hackathon event with 30 hours of hacking fun, exciting guest speakers, delicious food and great prize money is just what you have been looking for!

What the hack is a Hackathon?

A Hackathon is a social coding event that brings together a group of people with various skills (techy and non-techy) to collaboratively create a new computer program (aka software or online application).

And guess what? We are hosting one of these cool events on the weekend 4 – 5 August 2018 at the Gold Coast Campus Library where we want you– brilliant masterminds– to design, develop and showcase a mobile application that would greatly improve your and your fellow peers’ student lives.

Who can participate?

Everyone who is passionate to work together with a bunch of cool people to create something new and amazing! You don’t need to be a coder or tech savvy to take part in the Hackathon. Although we are definitely looking for techy students to write the code, teams will also require students with marketing, graphic design, project management or any other genius skill that can contribute to creating an awesome app.

How do I register?

Simply head over to our Hackathon website to register as an individual or team. Join us for an awesome weekend full of fun, with the opportunity to meet new people, enhance your skill sets and the chance to win big! It is going to be awesome!

Are you neck-deep in study and need a studious place with a studious computer to get it done? Need to know where computers are available at a campus near you? Good news everyone! There’s an app for that.

Common-use computers are available in all campus libraries and in our aptly-named computer labs. Some labs are open 24/7 and you can check out the library hours to see how long you can hang out.

If your assignment is a doozy that requires all sorts of specific software, you can find out if the lab you’re heading for is the best option by checking available software. More good news? All common-use computers come with Google, for any truly curly questions!

Are you currently preparing yourself for your first ever Trimester 3, excited at the prospect of finishing your degree sooner? Organising your books, timetable, workstation?

Well, while you’re getting all your stuff organised – which we’re guessing that is likely to include a computer or laptop – don’t forget that as a Griffith student you are entitled to student discounts on various software and hardware.

We are hearing almost every day in the news about the latest breach or hack (not to mention the foreign prince who wants to marry me). So it’s time to brush up on some good practices around passwords, data protection and your online identity.

‘Too hard basket’ you say? Not now we’ve found the perfect place to start with some easy basics: Australia’s Stay Smart Online website.

Tips to protect yourself online
This isn’t just for your desktop, don’t forget you need to protect all your devices: laptop, mobile, tablet.

Passphrases

Use different, strong, hard-to-guess passphrases on all your devices.

Don’t arbitrarily mix letters, numbers and symbols to make a password. Instead, create passwords that are more memorable.

If you want further protection, you could also download Norton 360 or Norton Internet Security. While these incur a free, Griffith Students get 50% off, and we reckon that’s an alright saving! You can find out more about Norton Student Savings here.

Once you’ve gotten your anti-virus software sorted, there are a few more things to you can to do protect against computer viruses, so check out our post on how to secure your virtual world, and keep yourself protected online.

A huge congrats to all participants who worked their behinds off and pumped out some amazing work!

The event kicked off with guest speaker, Daniel Ngo from Entrepreneur Haus (check out Daniel’s speech on Facebook). The students were given a short brief and let loose for 30 hours to develop an innovative and creative app.

There was yawning, there was napping, there were odd smells… but nothing an emergency supply of toothbrushes and toothpaste couldn’t fix. The energy drinks were flowing, the brains were pumping and the students created some amazing work and learnt some valuable lessons. “I learnt that the presentation is just as, if not more important, as the product itself” said one student. Another student loved the real world experience “where like-minded people gather and work towards a common goal”.

Congratulations to our innovative first prize winners. Taking home $2000 was Damien Robinson, Joaquin Ramirez Reyes and Joshua Murchie. They blew the judges away with their creative answer to planning your degree and subject choices.

Taking out second prize and $1000 was Jaden Vaniersel, Ian Murnane, Harley Jarrett. They built an app allowing you to share locations, events, study tips and a very helpful assignment countdown clock – what student doesn’t need that?!

Best User Interface and $500, went to Harrison Croaker, William Fischer and Carl Humphries for their ‘M8te’ design.

Thank you to Greg Phipps, our very own alumni and Technical Program Manager, Google Maps, and Leigh Ellen Potter, Senior Lecturer, School of ICT, who provided some wise words to the participants. Their videos provided relief and inspiration during their short breaks.

Shouting huge congrats to Joshua Murchie who took out first prize in the Hack-a-thon App Idea competition and just walked away with a hefty $1500!

There were hundreds of submissions and some brilliant ideas. Now you have the chance to turn those ideas into something real. Sign up for the Hack-a-thon weekend and win part of a huge $3500 prize pool!

About Josh

Josh is studying a Master of IT and about to begin a dissertation with a technology innovation education theme and is a current student ambassador for the Mayor of the Gold Coast. He is also the co-founder and president of the Griffith Uni Start-up Entrepreneurs Club, where they promote collaboration and entrepreneurship in the student community.

Josh was frustrated with planning out his degree; which course to take when, without missing pre-requisites or having to wait a trimester for the next offering. His idea focussed on creating an awesome timetabling experience for the user and easing student frustrations.

More Prizes

Second prize of $750 went to Tahnee Webb, studying a Bachelor of Criminology and Criminal Justice. Her fantastic ‘CramSession’ idea is a great social enhancer allowing students to collaborate. Third prize of $500 went to Christian Frost, studying Master of Philosophy in the school of Human Services and Social Work. He had an innovative idea to ease parking and transport issues around campus.

The Hack-a-thon Weekend

Are you a totally tech savvy student? Maybe you’re involved in IT, marketing, app development, or project management? Or maybe you just want to learn how to create an app (hey, that’ll look sweet on your #resume #workskills).

You can now use these great ideas that were submitted and get involved in designing the app – from the ground up!

To get involved, you can register as an individual or as a team. Ultimately, you’ll be working in groups of three to four people to develop a web/mobile application and showcase it to the judges. Oh, and you can also win a lot of money:

$2000 for the winning team of the Hack-a-thon

$1000 for the runner-up team of the Hack-a-thon

$500 for best UI design

So, how’s this all going to work? We throw open the doors to the Gold Coast Library at 9am Saturday 29 April and you have 30 hours to work on the app and enjoy life! And, we are totally feeding you as well so register now and just tell everyone you were there to build an app.